Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure was encouraged to lie about being racially abused as part of a conspiracy by English journalists angry that Russia beat England in the 2018 World Cup bidding process.

That’s the outlandish claim made by a CSKA Moscow director after the Russian side were ordered to partially close their stadium for the game against Bayern Munich later this month because of their fans’ racist chanting.

The Sun quotes CSKA managing director Roman Babaev as saying: “The mood of vengeance among the English for having lost out to Russia influenced the case.

“After the match the British journalists encouraged Yaya Toure and other Manchester City players to expand on the theme.

“The English just can’t accept they lost to our country in a fair fight. We don’t believe racist behaviour by our fans has been proven.”